Taking a serious
note of the nearly one-week old strike by thousands of women tea plantation workers in Munnar, Congress-led UDF government today said it has initiated measures to end the agitation.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government would take all steps to find an early solution to end the stir by the women team pluckers, who are demanding among other things hike in wages and 20 per cent bonus.
"Government would examine the demands put forward by the
agitating women tea pluckers, who are the major work force of the tea plantation run by the Kannan Devan Hills Plantation (KDHP)company," he said here.
The workers have been keeping the trade unions away and
were directly holding talks. They continued to block all roads in hill town of Munnar, a well-known tourist destination.
Workers today booed away CPI-M Devikulam MLA, S Rajendran,
when he arrived to meet the agitating women, saying he was nowhere to be seen in the area since the agitation began.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said government viewed
the situation 'very seriously' and was trying to find a solution to end the agitation.
Echoing similar sentiments, KPCC President V M Sudheeran
asked government to take urgent steps to resolve the issue, saying the workers' demands were justified.
CPI-M veteran and Opposition leader in the assembly V S
Achuthanandan warned he would join the agitators if government failed to settle the strike without further delay.
"I will be in the forefront of the agitation if it is not
settled soon", Achuthanandan said at Palakaad.
Idukki District Collector V Ratheesan today held talks with the agitating workers and informed them that steps have been taken to provide land to landless people.
DGP T P Senkumar said police was closely watching the situation and there was no violence so far.
In a related development, a conciliatory talks held between trade unions representatives and KDHP managements with Labour Minister Shibu Baby John and Power Minister Aryadan Muhammed remained inclusive and would resume on September 13.
Meanwhile, KDHP said it was incurring "huge loss on a daily basis" due to the strike by its workers.
The company, in a release in Kochi, said it was "deeply
saddened" by the turn of events as workers demanding 20 per cent bonus have not reported for work, causing damage to standing crop which will result in 'massive loss, running into several crores of rupees'.
KHDP, first ever employee owned plantation company in the
country, has 16 tea manufacturing units with an annual production of 22 million kg and close to 12,000 employees.
